Part 14 (1/2)

There were many gray men on the hillside, all armed, all deadly, but the wartroops now sent several volleys of iron-tipped arrows down the hill, accompanied by a wave of rolling boulders. One or two gray figures fell, the rest retreated a short distance.

But as the flying things approached once again, Helwych arrived. The weedy youth had seemingly recovered from his wounds, for he and a number of personal guards sprinted out of the hall and down the street. The guards looked nervous, but Helwych, his lips drawn back and down in a grimace that could have been either of concentration or fear, lifted his staff and uttered a word of command. The sky was suddenly pocked by two billowing orange and yellow fireb.a.l.l.s.

Amid an outbreak of relieved cheers from wartroops and civilians alike, the young sorcerer ran to the other side of the hill and confronted the figures on the hillside. Projectiles smacked for a moment into the logs at his feet, but Helwych's power flowed, he barked orders, and the figures abruptly stopped, saluted, and turned back down the hill.

More cheers, but as Helwych returned to Hall Kingsbury, he groped for a way through the press of people and soldiers almost as though he did not see what was before his open eyes, and he was curt and abrupt with his men when he b.u.mped into them, like someone who, deeply frightened, sought to deny his fear.

Kallye and Gelyya spoke of it that night while, across the room, Relys tossed in fitful dreams. Thin to begin with, she had grown emaciated, for she had eaten nothing since Kallye had found her. It was all her nurses could do to get her to drink.

”We will have to get Relys out of Kingsbury,” said Kallye. ”We have only a few days.”

”How? If the land is full of hounds and . . .” Gelyya shook her head. ”What did the men call them? Gray faces?”

”Aye.”

”Then travel will be impossible. The soldiers are already telling people not to leave the town save by daylight.”

Kallye snorted. ”A fine plan that is. As if you and I will huddle indoors in our beds while our ladies deliver alone in the night.”

Gelyya shrugged. ”I have no intention of staying in if a woman needs me. But travel ...” She glanced at Relys, shook her head.

”I think what Helwych did this afternoon gained the Grayfaces' allegiance,” said Kallye. ”The countryside about Kingsbury should be safe for a time, and we must take advantage of that fact. If Relys stays here, she is bound to be discovered eventually.”

Gelyya looked doubtful. ”Do you ... do you think she will recover?”

Relys had stopped thras.h.i.+ng for the moment. Her wounds were grievous, both physically and emotionally, and Kallye had, to be sure, seen better. But she had seen and heard of worse, too. ”She will live,” she said.

Relys stirred. ”I will . . . live.”

Kallye and Gelyya exchanged startled glances and rushed to the bed. Relys's eyes were open. Her face was pale and drawn even against the white pillow, and her cheeks had grown hollow. Painfully, she lifted her right hand, examined the dressings that covered it. ”How . . . long?” she said.

”A few days past a week, child,” said Kallye.

”Where . . . ami?”

”In Kingsbury. In my house.”

Relys nodded slowly. Her eyes, though they seemed to comprehend what was before them for the first time since Kallye had found her, still held the hollow, ravaged emptiness of the rape. ”Timbrin ...”

”With Paia still. She is well. The men do not know of her presence there, nor of yours here.”

”We must send you both someplace safe,” said Gelyya.

Relys closed her eyes slowly, and her face clenched for a moment. ”Safe?” she said. ”What is ... safe . . . anymore?”

Helwych had been thorough; when Kyria and Dindrane, taking to the astral, attempted to penetrate the curtain wall that now surrounded Gryylth, they found that the spiritual Worlds had been riven apart with such force and efficiency that pa.s.sage was impossible. And when the boats that Pellam had sent out returned, their captains reported that several of the crafts had, upon approaching the wall, been incinerated. The rest had kept a good distance after that, but their cautious explorations indicated that the impenetrable barrier encircled the entirety of Gryylth and Corrin.

Very thorough. Very thorough indeed.

That night, lamps burned in the great hall of the King's House as the rulers and advisors of three nations met in council. Pellam, by now used to the oddity- and the necessity-of arms and armies in his land, was as solemn and at times as strangely informal as ever; and Darham as usual seemed to be turning the facts over in his mind, avoiding both despair and impetuosity. Cvinthil, though, had changed, rising above his anger and setting aside his single-mindedness to be- come thoughtful and deliberate in his questions and ideas.

”Could you and Dindrane protect the flotilla from the effects of the wall so that we might come to a safe landing in Gryylth?” he asked Kyria. Kyria looked to Dindrane. The priestess was leaning on her staff, eyes downcast, her close-cropped head as bright as a gold coin in the torchlight. Silently, she shook her head: she and Kyria had already talked about that.

”I fear not, my king,” said the sorceress. ”Our potencies are not trivial, but to protect an entire flotilla from an attack that might take many forms is beyond us.”

”What about a frontal a.s.sault?” said Manda. ”Perhaps the answer lies in battling straight through the wall rather than in defending against it.”

The Gordian knot itself would have given no more problem to Manda of Dubris than it had to Alexander of Macedon. Because of her forthrightness, Wykla had a lover, and Marrha was alive and well. Kyria wished that everything could be so simple. ”Under normal circ.u.mstances,” she said, ”that would indeed be an option. But this wall ...” She looked for intelligible explanations, but succeeded only in vexing herself. She knew magic by instinct alone; when she attempted to explain what she did, she was reduced to groping for words. ”Attacking it,” she said at last, ”would be like trying to empty the sea with a bucket. From moment to moment it is renewed, and its sources of existence lie in the universe itself.''

”Are you saying that Gryylth is lost?” Cvinthil's tone was one of careful neutrality.

Kyria shook her head. ' 'I am only saying that a direct attack on the wall would accomplish nothing.”

”You said also that defense is impossible.”

”So it is.”

Cvinthil spread his hands. ”Then what do we do? Will it take an act of the G.o.ds to restore us to our lands?”

An act Of the G.o.ds was what Kyria prayed for nightly. But Alouzon, she suspected, was in Los Angeles, light years away from Gryylth or Vaylle.

Alouzon in Los Angeles? What could she be doing there? How could she live?

She groped into a past life for counsel. ”In a place where I lived once,” she said, ”there were some women I knew who called themselves witches.” How far away it all seemed now! Consciousness-raising groups and feminist religion had become as outlandish to her as dragons and swords had seemed to Helen Addams. ”They had many things to say about life, some wise and some silly. One of the wise things, though, was that for every problem there is an infinity of solutions.”

Darham was nodding. ”Presented with two unsatisfactory choices,” he said, ”seek then a third.”

Kyria smiled. ”Exactly.”

”You are counseling patience, then,” said Cvinthil.

”Aye,” said Kyria, trying to soften the response as much as she could. ”I am afraid so.”

The king of Gryylth nodded slowly. ”Patience is a bitter medicine to swallow when your land is locked away and your wife and children and comrades are in the hands of an enemy. But I have been hasty ...” He looked to Darham. ”... as hasty as Tarwach, as hasty as Dythragor, and I have found no more joy than they. Therefore, lady Kyria, if you counsel patience, I will accept your counsel.”

Kyria curtsied formally. ”Thank you, my king. Dindrane and I will continue to search for another way.”

Marrha, at Karthin's side as usual, was nodding agreement, but she said: ”Alouzon spoke of other ways once, Kyria, and the need was speedily answered. But this time I fear that we may wait for a long time.”

Kyria spread her hands. ”That may well be. And I am afraid that when it comes, it may well come unlooked-for and unrecognized.”

Wykla laughed suddenly. ”Friend Kyria, you have obviously studied your arts well: you have become as enigmatic as Mernyl.”

”Indeed?” Kyria discovered that she was blus.h.i.+ng. ”I had not intended to be so.”

Pellam was nodding. ”Fear not, child. It is seemly for a sorceress to be enigmatic.”

But Santhe spoke, his manner uncharacteristically serious. ”If we are to wait for a solution, lords, then I would suggest that we make ourselves useful to our hosts. There has been an increase in the attacks of the hounds, and the beasts are becoming bolder with each pa.s.sing day. When first we arrived, we offered help to the Vayllens. I say it is now time to make good our offer.”

Pellam turned his deep eyes on the councilor. ”You have seen how violence affects my people, friend Santhe. What is it you propose?”